[MoP] Protection Paladin Guide

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

This has nothing to do with burst. Burst dmg is getting tripple puncture while having 25+ stacks of debuff on you. Burst dmg is getting talon rake with 2+ stacks of debuff on you.

Why the bathplug would you let TP stack to 25?

[celinamuna]

Why the bathplug would you let TP stack to 25?

a) Trying to see how long you can survive
b) Veng
c) a+b = shits and giggles.

But normally don't reset it before 15 which is 2 gates, with a little bit of extra mastery most likely wouldn't even have problem with 25+

But again, this is more an indication of my definition of "burst" dmg. Not the theck's "boss auto swings", and not the "well you require less healing"

[Deleted]

You were able to reach 50% in the previous tier.

have ~68-71% on a lot of bosses. unless there's a nerf to haste/sanctity we might reach 85%+ next tier. which is insane.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

10531 haste rating
670k life unbuffed

Things are starting to look up.

[Nillo]

Why the bathplug would you let TP stack to 25?

It's still less dangerous than p2 on heroic ~

[Deleted]

Say wat gurlfrend.

No srsly I had no idea what you meant.

[Lethora]

10531 haste rating
670k life unbuffed

Things are starting to look up.

I assume you are using some kind of stamina trinket/gems.
I sit at 15.5k haste and 618k hp unbuffed.

[Nairobi]

have ~68-71% on a lot of bosses. unless there's a nerf to haste/sanctity we might reach 85%+ next tier. which is insane.

Is this with DP? Or with HA?

I'm using DP more now, on standstill fights like Tortos (I MT, BrM kites), but it's still not to my liking. I know it's "supposed to be better", but 25% is RNG is RNG. To be fair, I've not really looked over my uptimes, but it feels like I'm not quite there yet. Though that could be a gear issue....

I assume you are using some kind of stamina trinket/gems.
I sit at 15.5k haste and 618k hp unbuffed.

Which leads me to this. I'm sitting at 14.5k haste and ~620k. I'm still hit capped but dropped a bit of expertise (down to 13.5). Even so, I feel like I'm reaching a point where stats would be better pushed into something else, like Mastery, for progression anyway. Are any of you guys aiming for a "haste platform" before moving to another stat focus? Is haste still scaling linearly, or are we going to reach an inflection point in it's scaling at some level? Obviously, 50% is the "cap", but wondering about any levels prior.

[Xs]

Is this with DP? Or with HA?

I'm using DP more now, on standstill fights like Tortos (I MT, BrM kites), but it's still not to my liking. I know it's "supposed to be better", but 25% is RNG is RNG. To be fair, I've not really looked over my uptimes, but it feels like I'm not quite there yet. Though that could be a gear issue....

Its an acquired taste, but if you feel like DP just doesn't feel right there's no shame in using something else. Personally I kind of get where you're coming from but playing a lot of Holy and back in the days Ret, I'm already fairly accustom to the mechanic.

Which leads me to this. I'm sitting at 14.5k haste and ~620k. I'm still hit capped but dropped a bit of expertise (down to 13.5). Even so, I feel like I'm reaching a point where stats would be better pushed into something else, like Mastery, for progression anyway. Are any of you guys aiming for a "haste platform" before moving to another stat focus? Is haste still scaling linearly, or are we going to reach an inflection point in it's scaling at some level? Obviously, 50% is the "cap", but wondering about any levels prior.

It depends what you're going for really, and if you're coming into issues. If you're starting to struggle with keeping the rotation up, or feel like you're taking too much burst damage then it may be the time to think about the other options, I'm sure from your posts though, that you're smart enough to know your own limits.

[Nairobi]

I mean, don't get me wrong: DP is great at times, and sucks at others. But that's the name of the game with %chance based abilities. Last night, I had 8 (EIGHT) proc's in a row. Basically Holy Avenger as a passive. Another attempt, it seemed like I couldn't buy a proc. I'm sure that, overall, DP has higher uptime (esp as we increase haste levels further), but then we get into stochastic reduction vs. on-demand again.

And yeah, I'm not really dealing with any issues personally, at least none that more haste or mastery would really solve. Working on HC Council, it's more of a group fail than anything, but I suppose Stam is my problem there...stupid magic dmg. Anyway, I guess what I was asking is this:

1) We know that Mastery > All in terms of dmg reduction/smoothing, so running a high-haste build with a mastery secondary would be the best for a pure tank option.
2) We value haste high due to its increase to our dmg output, as well as ancillary effects like increased self heals and ShotR uptime.
So, if we are looking to maximize output....
3) Would it be better, at some point (and if so, which?) to begin looking at more crit gear to augment haste, versus just stacking haste to the moon? Is there a tangible synergistic benefit to a ratio of Haste:Crit, and if so, can we determine that? I assume it will vary based on vengeance, # of targets, etc...but talking ballpark here.

[Deleted]

Haste always > crit until 50% unless therr is some strange mechanic.
Multi target favors crit but not sure how much tbh. But safe to say at no point is crit>haste/hit/exp. Also remember crit is a straight survivabilty vs dps tradeoff

[celinamuna]

Tbh if you want higher dps at the cost of survivability, switch your priority to AS > HW > consecrate > judgement > cs and you'll get it w/o having to re-gem / reforge.

[Deleted]

Allrighty, could I get any recommendations for enemy swing timer addons?

watch?v=t8eTlzY1xag if anyone could tell me the one he uses, i'd be very happy!

(cant post links)

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Allrighty, could I get any recommendations for enemy swing timer addons?

watch?v=t8eTlzY1xag if anyone could tell me the one he uses, i'd be very happy!

(cant post links)

http://www.wowace.com/addons/bossswingtimer/

That is the one I'm using.

[Nairobi]

Haste always > crit until 50% unless therr is some strange mechanic.
Multi target favors crit but not sure how much tbh. But safe to say at no point is crit>haste/hit/exp. Also remember crit is a straight survivabilty vs dps tradeoff

I figured as much, just thought I'd ask

Tbh if you want higher dps at the cost of survivability, switch your priority to AS > HW > consecrate > judgement > cs and you'll get it w/o having to re-gem / reforge.

Also a good call. I tend to do that on high dmg opportunity fights (like Iron Qon).

Speaking of that...

Much to the chagrin of our DK and Ret, I managed to roll both Heroic Spark AND Heroic Feather. Trololol... Anyway, the uptime on feather is absurdly high for prot, and what started as an experiment using it has turned into fulltime use.

HO-LEE-CRAP. Not that I'm a fan of avoidance at all, but with a full stack of feather, I'm damn near 45% parry. I'm seeing sacred shield ticks for well over 125k. I'm seeing AS crits for over 1mil. I was 50k DPS above our next damage on heroic IQ, and top heals as well. The high uptime on the proc is nothing to sneeze at for actual tanking either (via SS and parry cheesing). Our RL didn't turn on logs (/rage!) but my 202k parse would have been a #2 rank.

So, while HC Spark is great, I think HC Feather may be the dark horse BIS trinket for us this tier. Sure, you get stuck using a hit trinket (ref -> ~600 haste), but that allows you to swap in haste/stam gems (if needed). Thoughts?

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

With normal feather (possibly lower proc rate?) and 11000 haste I was getting 3-4 procs of the horridon trinket for every one proc of the feather at a target dummy just now (approx 2:20ish between feather procs).

[Nairobi]

With normal feather (possibly lower proc rate?) and 11000 haste I was getting 3-4 procs of the horridon trinket for every one proc of the feather at a target dummy just now (approx 2:20ish between feather procs).

Not sure if the proc rate differs based on ilvl. I'm running 15001 haste and HA (most of the time) and I'm seeing ~1.5-1.7 PPM on my last 2 raid nights. Obviously, a target dummy sample size is quite small, hell even 2 raid nights is as well, but it's definitely higher than what you're quoting, by a large margin.

I've been told that HC trinkets DO have higher proc-rates, but cannot find blue confirmation on that. FWIW, I have higher Feather uptime than Zandalari Warrior uptime. YMMV based on haste, RNG, offer valid only in participating areas.

[Deleted]

Hey I was wondering could anyone tell me what a decent uptime on SotR is on an average spank and tank fight?

[celinamuna]

Hey I was wondering could anyone tell me what a decent uptime on SotR is on an average spank and tank fight?

100%

All jokes aside there's no real number. Too many factors to account for : tank swaps, big hits and how frequent they are, movement, time spent not dpsing on boss, etc.

You want it to be able to block every *large* hit if it dangers you. Everything else is just a nice benefit. (well if big hits are rare ie : ji-kun, just aim for the max uptime)

Plus it all depends on your choice of talents and your haste level.
With AV you might have XX% uptime but then you can have shield up for 30% of some extra dmg phase (say if you took decap on lei-shen and still tanking him)
With DP you might have higher % uptime but more of it will be wasted.
With SW you might have in the middle but doing a lot more dmg/healing and taking more healing.

[Maester]

Got the helm tier piece from LFR yesterday and felt horrible about getting the Protection piece over the amazingly itemized Ret piece just because of the Protection 2pc bonus.

Blizzard, please learn that we want Haste on at least our tier tank pieces!